Introduction

The Conclusion provides a final assessment of the book’s in-depth examination of the perception and influence of American culture in Italy. It is divided into four parts. The first one dwells on the most surprising discoveries brought about by research for this book in relation to both the pre-First World War period and the Fascist dictatorship. The second part addresses the controversial term ‘Americanization’ and discusses whether the influence of American culture in Italy was inevitable. The third part looks at the connections between this study and the development of the presence of American culture in the post-Second World War years. The fourth and final section underlines the revealing perspective that was made possible by the chronological span of this book, moving back to the nineteenth century and thus allowing a clear perception of the centrality of French culture for Italy’s educated elite. It also dwells on the book’s connection between the development of mass culture and the arrival of American artefacts and manufacturing techniques at the start of the twentieth century. The Conclusion ends with a comment on a 1930 letter by literary author Cesare Pavese reflecting on the leading role taken by American culture during the interwar years.

This book examines the influence of American culture in Italy during the decades between unification in 1861 and the implosion of Mussolini’s Fascist regime in July 1943. During this period the country witnessed large-scale social and economic modernization as well as an unprecedented explosion of mass culture. Focusing on six key fields of study—the press, literature, cinema, music, radio and the comics industry—the book traces a gradual shift from the hegemonic influence of France on Italy’s highbrow culture to the emergence of the USA as a new transnational model of modernity, able to address all social classes. This phenomenon coincided with the mass migration of Italians, whose hopes for a better life across the ocean produced a positive image of America that was largely at loggerheads with a more dismissive reaction from Italy’s educated elite. By tracing the presence of American culture in Italy, this book offers new perspectives on the development of Italian culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also offers a thorough revision of how Mussolini’s regime responded to American culture, from jazz music to Hollywood films, and dismisses the myth of a fundamentally anti-American totalitarian regime. While scholarship to date has focused on the pervasive influence of American culture in the aftermath of the Second World War, this book tells the story of its first arrival, at a time when the French model was still dominant and Italy was beginning to embrace modernity and mass culture. The book is divided into two parts, each containing five chapters: Part One is entitled ‘The Discovery of America, 1861–1919’, while Part Two covers ‘America in Fascist Italy, 1922–1943’.

Chapter 2 explores the perception and influence of American culture in Italy’s public debate during the period following unification. The title refers to Disraeli’s famous conception of ‘two nations’ in order to highlight the need to distinguish between Italy’s educated elite and the vast majority of semi-illiterate Italians, many of whom crossed the ocean in search of a better life. The chapter is divided into three main sections. The first concentrates on differing visions of America in the daily press and illustrated magazines. A key point of discussion in this section is the term ‘Americanata’, a popular neologism introduced in the 1870s (and still in use today) that encapsulated a condescending view of American culture. The second section concentrates on the impact of William Cody’s 1890 and 1906 tours of Italy with his ‘Buffalo Bill’ Wild West show. The third and final section explores the ways and forms in which the vast mass of near-illiterate citizens built a vision—more imagined than real—of the United States of America.

A Higher Calling: Toward a More Spacious Role for Academic Advisors

EDITORS' NOTE: Howz serious and widespread a problem is sexual harassment in our universities? What means will effectively diminish its incidence without violating the rights of individuals? Each of thefollowing essays answers one of these two questions. In the first, Bernice Lott, Mary Ellen Reilly, and Dale Howard describe the results of a 1979 survey that examined a sample of the entire University of Rhode Island population. Its purpose was to determine how many of the respondents in the sample group had personal knowledge of or had experienced any form of sexual assault, intimidation, or insult; how they had responded to assault; and their beliefs about harassment in general. In the second essay, Judith Berman Brandenburg delineates a response to the problem worked out at Yale University: the establishment of a grievance procedure administered through a specially selected board. The process of this honest search for answers uncovers other questions: Do we have a definition of sexual harassment upon which most people will agree? Is power thefactor that transforms what may be cajolery into harassment? If so, power in what forms? Do these forms make the problem invulnerable to any solution? With these essays we open a dialogue on such questions. We invite your letters in response, in the hope that through the exchange we canfurther advance feminist efforts to analyze-and to overcome-this pernicious form of sexual injustice.

By offering a historical reconstruction of the process of contextualisation of hip hop culture in Italy over the last fifteen years, the article assesses the current status of canzone d’autore and its changing configuration under the impact of rap music. From a theoretical point of view, the conceptual framework combines the sociological definition of ‘field of cultural production’ elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu with the related literature on social and symbolic boundaries. From a methodological point of view, the analysis is based on the data collected by Club Tenco (a cultural organisation which plays an institutional role within the field of canzone d’autore) as well as on a series of qualitative interviews carried out with a number of Italian rappers and cantautori. Special attention is paid to a very few crucial figures that can be considered paradigmatic examples in the dynamic process of boundary-making of the two cultural (sub-)fields of Italian rap and canzone d’autore.

<p style="text-align:justify">The current study aimed to adopt and assess the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of Grit-S among Omani and American students (N = 487) using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The scale’s construct validity was estimated by investigating its associations with achievement goal orientations (AGOs). EFA results suggested that a two-factor solution (i.e., perseverance of effort [G_PE] and consistency of interest [G_CI]) was the best factorial structure, explaining 47.74% and 51.02% of the variance in the Omani and American samples, respectively. The factors had good reliability coefficients in the two samples. Related to the intercultural differences, G_PE explained more variance among Omanis (31.02%) relative to American sample, whereas G_CI explained a larger proportion of variance among Americans (36.86%) compared with Omani sample. The first level of measurement invariance, configural invariance, was not supported, necessitating the investigation of the other levels of measurement invariance using a new sample. Grit correlated positively with mastery and performance-approach goals (r = .29 and .12, respectively) and negatively with avoidance goals (r = -.25), supporting the scale’s construct validity. These findings showed that Grit-S scale can be used as valid and reliable assessment tool to assess student interest and perseverance in the academic context in Arabic/Omani and American cultures.</p>

The poetry book Transformations by Anne Sexton consists of seventeen poems based on the versions of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm. Told by Sexton, the tales become sharp comments on American culture, changing characters and action to focus on gender, power systems and medical histories. Analyzing the poems “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Rapunzel”, and “Rumpelstiltskin”, this article focusses on Sexton’s revelation of the aging and ageism inherent in both the fairytales and contemporary American culture. I am interested in a reading of the poems beyond the confessional approach so common in analyses of Sexton’s poetry, focusing instead on how the characters struggle with beauty expectations, age and gender roles as well as loneliness. Therefore, I have discussed the chosen poems with different communities beyond the academic context with an interest in other approaches and experiences applied in the readings. The voices are woven into the article, adding to the analysis and offering a comment on contemporary reading practices.

Reviewed by: Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965 Maurice M. Labelle Alvah, Donna — Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Pp. 289. In Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965, historian Donna Alvah illuminates the ways in which us military families abroad influenced global perceptions of American diplomacy, state, society, and culture. During the early Cold War period, United States military spouses and children stationed in Western Europe and Asia sought to cultivate neighbouring support and friendly relations with local people on- and off-base. By serving as "unofficial ambassadors" of "the American way of life," these ordinary Americans buttressed local us military efforts and global, Cold War diplomatic objectives. "Families … could exercise international influence and advance diplomatic aims by representing a nonmilitaristic facet of the United States," Alvah contends. "Wives, children, and servicemen in their domestic roles as husbands and fathers could exert soft-power influence that both complemented and tempered the United States' hard-power martial presence" (p. 227). Through multiple formal and informal cultural encounters with residents of occupied and host countries, American military families exercised a friendly and "feminine" form of American global power, consequently proliferating the myth of us exceptionalism. As Washington envisioned the establishment of a new Cold War order after World War II, military officials encouraged military families stationed overseas to participate in American foreign relations by fraternizing with non-Americans. In the spirit of cultural internationalism, husbands, wives, and children displayed American leadership, generosity, and benevolence as they visibly took part in myriad local events and humanitarian causes. American servicemen, at this time, were expected to "teach" local families the fruits of democracy and American culture. Such efforts depicted American dominance in a paternalist light, as "portrayals of servicemen with children … appealed to the idea of international family ties, though always with the American men in the role of adult benefactors" (p. 57). "The frequency of familial metaphors in representing relationships between servicemen and host nationals, as well as actual family relationships," Alvah convincingly argues, "illustrates the centrality of ideas [End Page 479] about the family to relations between the U.S. military and peoples of foreign countries" (p. 60). US military wives, for their part, actively advanced global aims and participated in the Cold War by forging informal international alliances and assisting disadvantaged peoples, as well as promoting American "values." Through their "feminine good will," white American women acted as US diplomatic agents, as they "represented sincere efforts to do good for those who were less privileged than Americans, while helping to ease Americans' discomfort with and even morally justify their nation's global dominance" (p. 82). On the Pacific island of Okinawa, for instance, Marian Merritt and other US military spouses sought to assist Okinawans in their postwar recovery, protect them from peril, and obtain their allegiance to the American Cold War effort. While perceiving local residents as inferior, childlike peoples in need of American guardianship, they constructed themselves as maternal protectors. "This maternalism tries to ease the negative effects of paternalistic military control while reinforcing justifications for the Cold war domination of Okinawa by the United States," Alvah contends (pp. 168–69). In an attempt to present a more friendly and compassionate picture of the American occupation of Okinawa, military wives "sought to counteract the negative effects of the military through nurturing, intimate interactions with Okinawans while maintaining the power differential" (p. 178). Unofficial Ambassadors serves as an excellent contribution to the existing scholarship on gender in US foreign relations and American internationalism. By highlighting the agency of US military wives and children abroad, Alvah draws necessary attention to the involvement of non-state actors in American diplomacy. She fails, however, to offer a substantial discussion regarding the role of US servicemen when off-duty and their interactions with local residents. How did these husbands embrace local culture and espouse these social roles? Did they engage with host citizens in the same ways as their wives? Did they promote a feminine, non-militaristic vision of the so-called American way of life? Alvah, in addition, leads...

Discomfort in Ethnography. Methodological questions, choices and tools in sensitive contexts

Within an academic environment and context of higher education, the question of disciplinary differentiation and research methodology are burning issues to adhere to the quest for scientific and sound epistemological based knowledge. While dealing with the dual tension: wisdom (sapientia) and reason (scientia), it is difficult for practical theology to identify and maintain its theological character. Under the pressure of human sciences, research in practical theology tends to turn to phenomenology so to gain clarity on the philosophical framework or paradigm for performing research projects in a systematic and methodological way. In this regard, existential phenomenology probes into the meta-realm of meaning-giving; it describes the frailty of life in terms of being (Dasein) as exposed to anxiety, dread, despair and fear of death. Due to the demand for empirical research, the threat of empiricism and the danger of Platonification (the ‘causation trap’) is discussed. To maintain both its spiritual-theological character (ministerial and ecclesial context), and its relevancy for the dynamics of life events (contextuality), a ‘spiritual empiricism’ is proposed by means of a praxis of practical theological verbing, namely understanding and interpreting, communicating and verbalising, acting, hoping, imagining, seeing, beautifying and living. It is argued that the notion ‘praxis of God’ could serve as theological paradigm in theory formation. The passio Dei is both a spiritual matter and existential-experiential entity within the encounter of God–human beings. It refers to both the reason or logic of God (ḥesed) and the wisdom of grace (compassion).

THE FILM RATING SYSTEM, ESTABLISHED in 1968 by Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has remained remarkably consistent in structure throughout its history. Apart from some minor tweaks, first-and to date, onlymajor change came in 1984, when string of controversial features led to creation of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. This new classification was intended to bridge gap PG and restricted R classification. If system is intended to reflect current sentiment of parents and mirror contemporary concern (Why: History of Ratings), can this amendment suggest important changes in society, particularly in relation to views of horror and childhood?Regrettably, importance of PG-13 has been systematically downplayed, often even ignored, in academic context. In Stephen Vaughn's critical account of system's history, for instance, author frames introduction of PG-13 around several cases of controversies of early 1980s, most of which surprisingly refer not to PG or PG-13 films but to R and classifications and their clearly flawed appeals process (109). The importance of restricted side of ratings spectrum is so overpowering that author concludes his analysis of PG-13 with caveat there was still nothing to categorize area R and X (120). In any case, Vaughn does subtly hint at why PG-13 may be important on its own: violence and horror in Spielberg's family films such as Poltergeist (1982, dir. Tobe Hooper) and Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom (1984, dir. Steven Spielberg), which were awarded PG with minor struggle; films were key to creation of PG-13 (Vaughn 114-15) and prompted debates around distinction between teenagers and preteens (Vaughn 117).This is point worthy of much deeper consideration, particularly given heated controversy generated by Temple of Doom upon release. Its violence and gore surprised viewers and upset parents, prompting Paramount to insert warning in its advertisements for film (This film may be too intense for younger children) and leading Spielberg to clarify that he would not let ten-year-old see one of film's most violent sequences (Harmetz 48). But if Temple of Doom was the last straw . . . that broke back of support for single PG rating (Goodman C5), its critical reception was, like that of Poltergeist, mostly positive. The issues around PG-13 become more complex when third PG-rated, family-friendly film, Gremlins (1984, dir. Joe Dante), is considered as part of group of PG-13 instigators. Unlike its predecessors, Gremlins provoked strong critical ambiguity and an eruption of anxieties over not only film's violence but also its tone and ideology, which seemed to be closer to horror than family film. That PG-13 would then be perceived as a sop to pressure, not as an initiative (Champlin 77), suggests early to mid-1980s as period of transformation in social and cultural perceptions in which PG-13 surfaced as marker of new boundaries for childhood as well as horror genre.Debates about film system have been preoccupied mainly with topics of censorship and child protection, usually discussed separately. Discussions over censorship tend to limit themselves to restricted end of ratings spectrum and detail problems surrounding and NC-17 ratings, and authors who focus on child protection largely discuss system's scope and competence of its classifications, sometimes defending change from age-based ratings to detailed content descriptions.1 Although debates differ, concerns raised on each side often meet specifically in questioning of system's integrity and MPAA's right to moral authority, as well as consequences of power it wields in Hollywood. …

Recently, ChatGPT, an advanced AI language model, has transformed the tourism industry by redefining how travelers access information and experience destinations. This survey explores the multifaceted potential of ChatGPT in various sectors of the tourism domain. The study begins by addressing the ethical considerations related to AI and natural language processing, emphasizing the necessity of privacy and data security in ChatGPT interactions. It analyzes the recent research findings, demonstrating ChatGPT’s efficacy in translating languages for tourists and improving services. The technology’s impact on tourism education and research is explored, highlighting its disruptive effects, benefits, and challenges, particularly in academic contexts. The paper delves into ChatGPT’s influence on the hospitality and tourism sector, focusing on its role in customer interactions, backend operations, and research methodologies. Additionally, it examines ChatGPT’s implications for content creation, visitor motivations, cultural perceptions, and regional tourism management. These insights shed light on ChatGPT’s potential to enhance customer experiences, influence visitor behaviors, and bridge cultural gaps in diverse tourism contexts. Concluding with preliminary guidelines for ChatGPT adoption, this paper equips industry professionals with essential knowledge to leverage the technology effectively. By embracing ChatGPT, the tourism industry can provide travelers with more informed, personalized, and immersive experiences, thus enhancing overall satisfaction and engagement during their journeys.

Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital

Reviewed by: Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film and the Possibility of Black Modernity by Allyson Nadia Field Julie Lavelle Allyson Nadia Field, Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film and the Possibility of Black Modernity Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015 In her ambitious book, Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film and the Possibility of Black Modernity, Allyson Nadia Field makes an important contribution to film history, broadly speaking, as well as to the growing scholarship on African American film culture in the early twentieth century. Field’s exacting primary research expands the historical record in several directions by both deepening our understanding of the role of media in the social and political movement of racial uplift, and by revising the standard periodization of “race film” to account for African American filmmaking practices prior to 1915. In a 2013 report from the Library of Congress, historian David Pierce estimates that 70 percent of American films made [End Page 242] between 1912 and 1930 are permanently lost. For the period prior to 1912 the number is even higher. Field notes that there are no extant prints of uplift cinema. Her work tackles one of the central methodological questions facing silent film historians: how do we write film history without films? One response to this question has been to center the films that remain. In terms of the history of African American filmmaking, this has privileged race films: narrative films produced by African American filmmakers in the late 1910s and 1920s. Film historians have largely interpreted race films as emerging out of the controversy surrounding D. W. Griffith’s racist representation of African Americans in Birth of a Nation (1915). Another approach to this methodological question is most clearly articulated by Eric Smoodin, who claims that shifting attention away from the text is where the field is (and should be) headed; according to him we should take André Bazin’s concept “What is cinema?” and rework it, posing instead, “What is cinema culture?” Allyson Nadia Field intervenes to challenge both of these methodologies. She turns her attention to the years prior to 1915, when the earliest efforts at black film production emerged out of Tuskegee, the Hampton Institute, and the larger social and civic project of race uplift. For Field, race film begins prior to 1915, includes a wide variety of genres, and engages in various ways with uplift. In addition, Field refuses to sideline the film texts, and instead develops a framework for performing textual analysis and ideological criticism by excavating an impressive array of sources adjacent to uplift cinema. Working with novels, publicity, and promotional materials, postcards, photographs, newspaper editorials, trade reviews, and internal institutional documents, Field reconstructs the earliest years of African American film production in the United States. Field provides background on the uplift movement and its development in the South, primarily by analyzing materials from Tuskegee and the Hampton Institute. She locates and defines a set of aesthetic strategies employed in uplift media that highlighted the positive contributions of successful African American graduates of these institutes, while nevertheless foregrounding the constant threat of failure. She explores the production of films made to publicize the Tuskegee-Hampton ideal by George Broome (A Trip to Tuskegee, 1910), Louis B. Anderson (A Day at Tuskegee, 1913), and Leigh Richmond Miner (Making Negro Lives Count, 1914). Particularly fascinating is the chapter on The New Era, a repurposed version of Miner’s Making Negro Lives Count that was appended to the end of The Birth of a Nation during its exhibition in the mid-1910s. She ends the book with a chapter dedicated to African American entrepreneurs William Foster, Peter J. Jones, and Hunter C. Haynes. [End Page 243] Field selects these films and filmmakers for closer analysis in order to demonstrate the diverse use of the films for promotional, educational, and entertainment purposes. She demonstrates effectively the critical role that exhibition played in shaping meaning, and the ways that the ideology of uplift might have been understood differently in different contexts and by different audiences. Exhibition practices at this time were incredibly varied, and a great deal of control was in the hands of local...